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Summary

Native only to the California Channel Islands, the island fox is the smallest canid in North America. Populations on four of the islands were threatened to extinction in the 1990s due to human-mediated predation and disease. This is the first account of the natural history and ecology of the island fox, illustrating both the vulnerability of island ecosystems and the efficacy of cooperative conservation measures. It explains in detail the intense conservation actions required to recover fox populations, such as captive breeding and reintroduction, and large-scale ecosystem manipulation. These actions were successful due in large part to extraordinary collaboration among the scientists, managers and public advocates involved in the recovery effort. The book also examines the role of some aspects of island fox biology, characteristic of the 'island syndrome', in facilitating their recovery, including high productivity and an apparent adaptation to periodic genetic bottlenecks.

Author Biography

Timothy J. Coonan is a US National Park Service Biologist at Channel Islands National Park, California. He has led the park's island fox recovery program since 1999. Catherin A. Schwemm is an Ecologist for the US National Park Service in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 1993 she began the island fox monitoring program for Channel Islands National Park, California, and she has been a member of the Island fox Conservation Working Group since 1999. David K. Garcelon is President and Founder of the non-profit Institute for Wildlife Studies in Arcata, California. His research activities have included long-term work on population demography, captive breeding, movement patterns, disease exposure, and behavior.

Table of Contents

Foreword

p. xii

Acknowledgments

p. xiv

Introduction

p. 1

Evolution and genetics

p. 5

Description

p. 5

Dwarfism and the island syndrome

p. 7

Evolution of the island fox

p. 8

Island foxes in the paleoenvironment

p. 12

The peculiar generic status of the island fox

p. 13

Genetic management of captive island foxes

p. 15

Future of wild populations

p. 20

Social structure, reproduction, mortality and survivorship, and population dynamics

p. 21

Social organization and reproductive behavior

p. 22

Mortality and survivorship

p. 24

Population abundance and dynamics

p. 27

Factors affecting population dynamics

p. 30

Modeling island fox population dynamics

p. 32

Summary

p. 33

Food habits, habitat use, activity patterns, and dispersal

p. 34

Food habits

p. 34

Dispersal and travel

p. 38

Home range

p. 39

Habitat use

p. 40

Activity patterns

p. 41

Summary

p. 42

Golden eagles and the decline on the northern islands

p. 43

Detecting change

p. 43

Determining the cause

p. 47

Golden eagle colonization of the northern islands

p. 50

The vulnerability of island foxes to diurnal aerial predators

p. 56

Ecosystem recovery: Predators and prey on the northern Channel Islands

p. 58

Golden eagle removal

p. 58

Long-term ecosystem recovery actions

p. 66

Summary

p. 71

Disease and decline on Santa Catalina Island

p. 73

Declining populations

p. 73

Initial results

p. 75

Was disease the cause of the decline?

p. 75

Recommendations for population recovery

p. 76

Testing CDV vaccine

p. 77

Recovery actions: Captive breeding of island foxes

p. 81

Captive breeding efforts on the northern islands

p. 81

Methodology and techniques

p. 82

Demographic and genetic objectives of captive breeding

p. 92

Low reproductive success

p. 93

Summary

p. 98

Recovery actions: Reintroduction and translocation

p. 100

Translocation on Santa Catalina

p. 100

Reintroduction on Santa Catalina

p. 102

Reintroduction program on the northern islands

p. 103

Success of reintroduction

p. 111

Summary

p. 113

Reproductive biology, by Cheryl Asa

p. 115

Reproductive cycles

p. 116

Captive breeding

p. 117

Results of the monitoring study

p. 123

Summary

p. 127

Diseases of island foxes, by Linda Munson

p. 129

Disease in island populations

p. 130

Could viral disease explain the population declines?

p. 131

Do other viruses infect island foxes?

p. 133

Do non-viral pathogens infect island foxes?

p. 134

Parasites infecting island foxes

p. 134

Non-infectious diseases in island foxes

p. 138

Genetic diversity versus disease resistance

p. 140

Disease as a cause of death

p. 141

Overall health of the island fox populations

p. 142

Zoos, education, and public participation

p. 144

Public advocacy

p. 144

The role of zoos

p. 146

Tachi and Finnegan

p. 149

Environmental education

p. 152

Summary

p. 152

Managing recovery: Cooperative conservation, politics, and the Endangered Species Act